Giant Steps

2025 Halliday Winery of the Year - Giant Steps, Yarra Valley

Giant Steps has just been named 2025 Halliday Wine Companion Winery of the Year - one of the most coveted accolades in Australian wine. The same awards named their 2023 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir as Pinot Noir of the Year. It is a recognition of years of uncompromising work across some of the most exciting vineyard sites in the country.

Founded in 1997 by Phil Sexton - a man who left Margaret River to find the perfect Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sites in the Yarra Valley - Giant Steps has spent nearly three decades advancing Australia's reputation for cool-climate wine. Phil named the winery after John Coltrane's album Giant Steps, a fitting metaphor for the ambition that has defined every vintage since.

Today Giant Steps is led by Head of Winemaking and Viticulture Melanie Chester, who works across six exceptional vineyard sites in the Yarra Valley - and one in Tasmania - to produce wines that express the singular personality of each site. The wines are elegant, textural and built for the long haul. Halliday's top 5 winery seven times. 34 trophies and over 100 gold medals at international wine shows. Named one of the Top 100 Wineries in the World by Wine and Spirits Magazine for six consecutive years.

Phil Sexton - Founder

Born in Busselton, Western Australia, Phil Sexton grew up watching the Margaret River wine industry take shape around him. A Science graduate of the University of Western Australia with a Master's in Fermentation and Brewing Science from the University of Birmingham, Phil's early career was in brewing - co-founding the Matilda Bay Brewing Company and Little Creatures before turning his full attention to wine.

In 1997 he planted the Sexton Vineyard on the steep slopes of the Warramate Ranges near Gruyere in the Yarra Valley - his holy grail for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. He named the winery after John Coltrane's landmark 1960 album, a title that captured his own ambition perfectly. Giant Steps has been taking them ever since.

Steve Flamsteed - Winemaker

Steve joined Giant Steps as Chief Winemaker in 2003, but his first qualification was in food, completing a four-year chef's apprenticeship in Brisbane in the mid 1980s.

A keen skier, Steve travelled extensively in Europe, France in particular, paying his way chefing in small cafes, ski lodges and doing a 12-month stint at the St James Club in London. Whilst travelling in France, Steve developed a passion for cheese making, which would see him later return to France to study this trade. It was after working at Chateau du Bluizard in the Beaujolais region that Steve was inspired to become a qualified winemaker.

On returning to Australia, Steve enrolled at Roseworthy Agricultural College, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Wine Science) in 1993. In 1994 he won a Queen's Trust Scholarship to study farmhouse cheese making in France. As a winemaker, Steve has worked for Leeuwin Estate in Margaret River and the Hardy Wine Company at Yarra Burn Winery in the Yarra Valley. He is a Len Evans Scholar and experienced wine show judge.

Melanie Chester - Head of Winemaking and Viticulture

Melanie Chester joined Giant Steps in 2021 and has since led the winery to its greatest accolades - including the 2025 Halliday Winery of the Year and Pinot Noir of the Year. She came to Giant Steps from Sutton Grange Winery in Central Victoria, where she was Head Winemaker.

Melanie studied Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Adelaide, winning the Wolf Blass Prize for Excellence in Winemaking (2011) and the David Bradley Memorial Prize (2012). Her career spans d'Arenberg in McLaren Vale, Charles Melton in the Barossa, and Quinta do Crasto in Portugal's Douro Valley. In 2014 she became the youngest ever Len Evans Tutorial scholar. In 2015 she was named Gourmet Traveller Wine Young Winemaker of the Year.

"The wines will never look the same because the vineyards continue to change," she says, "but we are committed to ensuring that the quality will be the same if not better."

What the Critics Say

"One of Australia's most celebrated Pinot Noirs is in impressive form." - Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion, 98 points, 2024 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir

"Always highly seductive and perfumed wine." - Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion, 97 points, 2024 Primavera Vineyard Pinot Noir

"Another salivating and seductive Sexton Chardonnay." - Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion, 97 points, 2024 Sexton Vineyard Chardonnay

"Stunning Pinot Noir." - Huon Hooke, The Real Review, 96 points, 2024 Coal River Pinot Noir

"Great depth and tension, with underlying power." - Ryan Montgomery, JamesSuckling.com, 96 points, 2024 Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir

"A stand-out producer of the Yarra Valley... vineyard by vineyard, they offer a positive insight into the terroir of Yarra Valley." - Nick Stock, Gourmet Traveller Wine

"These Pinots are structured, delicate wines that you won't find from California or Chile, with a softness of fruit that you won't necessarily get from France." - Justin Knock MW, Decanter

Giant Steps wines are available at Great Little Vineyards at Orakei Bay Village in Remuera, Auckland, and online for delivery across New Zealand. Visit the Giant Steps website to learn more about the winery and their full range.